


still flying (it's not much but it's enough)

by unperfectwolf



Category: Fast and the Furious Series
Genre: Fix-It, M/M, Post Movie 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-08-23
Updated: 2008-08-23
Packaged: 2017-11-08 02:29:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/438139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unperfectwolf/pseuds/unperfectwolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>life goes on.</p>
            </blockquote>





	still flying (it's not much but it's enough)

**Author's Note:**

> disclaimer: totally and utterly not mine at all.  
> notes: 6,270 words. set post movie 2. epic of dooom that was in my notebook for a good five months. title from firefly episode 1. lyrics from third eye blind. beware of rogue commas, sara didn't have a go at this. um, yeah.

**still flying (it's not much but it's enough)**

"it's like walking with the wounded  
carrying that weight way too far  
concrete pulled you down so hard  
out there with the wounded"  
\- third eye blind

 

"You know what you're doing?"

The words haunted Brian across the states. He used them to fuel him, to keep him going. To prove to everyone else that he wasn't just some kid, that he actually knew what was going on.

When he swung out of the Skyline at the end of a race, the guy who'd held the money had a grin on his face and a stack of bills in hand. "Man, you sure know what you're doing. Didn't think a crazy white boy like you would, but you do."

Brian grinned back at him, the words echoing in his mind again. Every time he won, he looked over his shoulder and expected to see Dom watching, to haven proven to him that he did know what he was doing, and that not everything had been a lie.

It drove him to find the racing scene once he got to Miami, drove him to find it and prove himself to them. He never told them where he'd learned what he knew, where he'd gained his confidence, where he'd picked up his attitude towards racing. It drove him so far that if he said he could do something, no one would question it.

 

"Yo, Speedracer," someone called out behind him.

Brian tensed up, but when he turned around, only someone who knew him well could tell how closed off he was. "Don't call me that," he growled out when the other guy got close enough.

The guy held up his hands. "Whoa, whoa. Sorry, bro."

Brian didn't know who the guy was—he'd seen him around a few times, but hadn't ever been introduced. He let the guy ramble for a minute, then shot him a look and walked away. The guy didn't try and chase him.

Brian paused, just for a second, to let Tej know he was taking off, but didn't stop, not even when Tej called out after him.

Dom's voice chased him through the streets, and the memory of a sunny afternoon and family drove him through the dawn.

 

"If I do this, I get to pick the driver," Brian told the three men.

He got a dark look from Markham for it, but it was Bilkins who spoke. "And then you'll do it?"

"Then I'll think about it." He twisted around to look at the FBI Agent behind him. "Lets talk about the records being wiped."

"What's there to talk about?" Markham asked. "You do this, then we wipe it."

Brian didn't respond, just stared at Bilkins. Bilkins shook his head. "I can't do that, O'Conner. Even if I could…" he trailed off, but Brian got the idea.

"Then I guess you better set a court date. Good luck with finding a driver." He stood up and put his hands behind his back.

Behind him, Markham made an unidentifiable sound. In front of him, Bilkins ran a hand across his face. "I can drop the warrants on Letty and Leon. Vince is already serving time. I can't do anything about Toretto."

Brian shook his head. "All or nothing, Bilkins. You can take me back instead. Everyone will be happy to get the fugitive cop, probably more than they would be to get Toretto."

Bilkins sighed again, staring off to the side. Markham made an impatient sound. "We can get someone else, Bilkins."

"Yeah," Brian agreed, but he was smirking. Markham couldn't see it, or hear it in his voice, but Bilkins could. "You can find someone else. I'm sure all of the racers you can round up would love to help you, especially after all the times you cost them the race or broke the races up before they could start."

Bilkins covered his laugh with the cough. Markham made another sound, this one like someone was slowly pulling off a finger nail. Brian jerked as the Customs Agent recuffed him, but his eyes stayed on Bilkins. "I expect I'll be extradited to LA for you to have first crack, so I'll see you soon, Bilkins," Brian told him as Markham shoved him towards the door.

Bilkins closed his eyes and sighed one last time. "Wait." 

 

"Mia, I know you're in there. You don't have to come out, but _please_ listen to me." Brian paused, listening to see if Mia moved any farther away from the door.

When all he heard was silence, he sighed and leaned against the house. "Look, I know you know where everyone is, and I don't really want to know. I—that's a lie. I do want to know, but I don't have any hope that you'll ever tell me. But that's not why I'm here. Just. Mia, tell them they can come home, okay? The warrants have been dropped and their records are cleared."

Brian stood up straight and took a step back. "Vince gets released tomorrow. You should go pick him up." Brian sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Just—tell them. Please. So you guys can get on with life."

Brian left the Toretto house with his shoulders hunched and his hands in his pockets. He wasn't driving. Both the Skyline and the Yenko were at Tej's garage in Miami, waiting to be fixed up.

It didn't matter though. Tanner would pick him up when he called, and until then, the walking kept him busy.

 

The Skyline was back to its former glory, but the Yenko had a ways to go. Rome had stuck around for a few days, but the two of them had been kidding themselves when they talked about setting up a garage together. Dealing with each other a daily basis and trying to get anything done just wasn't something that they were ever good at.

Bilkins had called to let him know that Mia had picked Vince up, and that Dom, Letty and Leon had been recorded as crossing back into the US from Mexico. Tanner had called to let him know IA wasn't going to charge him. Everything was done and over with.

Brian could have moved off Tej's boat and gotten a place of his own, but he didn't. It was convenient and comfortable, and at the moment, the only things that made any sense to him were working on cars and racing.

 

Brian had finally finished getting what he needed, as far as parts for the Yenko went. He hadn't done a whole lot besides work on his two cars and work for Tej since everything had gone down. He raced when he could, but his rep had grown even more, and the only people who raced him were kids and idiots who wanted to be the best. It wasn't fun for the rest of the racers, not when it was a sure thing against them.

He was under an Acura, covered in sweat and grease, when he heard the voice. "O'Conner around?"

"Depends," Tej told the guy. Brian smiled at his friend's loyalty. "Who's lookin'?"

"It's okay, Tej," Brian said, sliding out from under the car. He stood up and walked toward the two guys slowly. "Dom," he said when he stopped a few feet away from them.

"Brian."

Neither moved, their eyes locked. They weren't tense, but there was an undercurrent that echoed between the two. Tej looked back and forth at them. "You cool, Brian?"

Brian broke the stare to turn and look at Tej. "Yeah. Tej, this is Dominic Toretto. Dom, Tej Parker. Tej owns this place."

Dom nodded to Tej, but after only a cursory glance, his eyes returned to Brian. "We gotta talk, Bri."

Brian nodded slowly. "I'll finish up on the Acura tonight, yeah?" he told Tej.

Tej nodded. Brian turned and led Dom towards the boat he was living on. Just before they went around the corner, Tej called out. "Yo, Bullet." He waited until Brian looked back over his shoulder before he continued. "You need anything, O'Conner."

Brian held his gaze a moment before he nodded in understanding. He led Dom on to the boat, making a bee-line to the fridge. "Beer?"

"Only if it's Corona," Dom told him with a faint grin. When Brian turned around to hand him his bottle, he had a small grin on his face too. Brian nodded to the plastic lawn chairs on the deck, and the two of them sat down in silence.

After both were nearly done with their beers, Dom spoke. "You got our records cleared."

Brian nodded. "I did."

Dom tilted his head back. "Why?"

Brian shrugged. "'Cause."

After another long pause, Dom spoke again. "How?"

Brian drained his beer, then got up to get another. As he handed a second one to Dom, he sighed, then spoke. "I gave them something they wanted more."

Dom raised an eyebrow at that, but didn't ask.

He didn't have to. After a few moments, Brian started to explain. "After I gave you the Supra, I ran. Took off across the country, even while they searched for both of us. Dude, I made more news that you did," he told him with a self-depreciating grin, which Dom returned. "Until my car got made, I raced. I made enough money to pick up this sweet little right-side Skyline and fix it up some, at least enough to race. Got it a new paint job, put a little bit of effort into her, and by the time I rolled into Miami she was looking pretty good. Didn't take too long for Tej to pick me up, give me a job and a place to stay."

He paused for a moment then. "I got picked up for racing about a year later. They had me go undercover again. In return for giving them what they wanted, I got you guys cleared and Vince out. It didn't do me a whole lot of good, since IA was still gunning for me. But without a case against you guys, they didn't have too much. Didn't stop them from trying, though," he told Dom ruefully.

The two of them sat in silence for a while after he stopped talking, finishing their beers. Dom was the one who finally spoke. "You sent money to Mia."

Brian didn't bother to deny it and nodded slowly, looking off into the distance. "I didn't know how tied up the money you had was. I figured I owed everyone to make sure she was okay."

"You didn't owe anyone anything, Bri," Dom told him. He drained his beer and stood up. When he passed Brian, he paused, his hand settling on the back of Brian's neck for a moment.

Brian tensed, but Dom started moving again. He put his empty on the counter, then turned around and leaned against it. "You need some help with that Acura?"

Brian stood up, a grin sliding onto his face. "Sure, man." He set his own empty to the side and followed Dom off the boat, the words that had driven him for so long playing through his mind. Finally, he thought, he might actually have an answer.

 

While they worked on the car, Dom told Brian what had gone down with the rest of the team since that last, botched, job. He, Leon and Letty had made it across the border and settle into a small town in Baja. He and Letty had tried to stick it out, but in the end she'd taken off to stay with family in Mexico City. He and Leon had stayed, though, working on anything with an engine that the locals needed worked on, just trying to keep busy.

"I'm not sure how much longer we could have lasted, man. We were both going stir crazy," Dom told him.

Brian paused what he was doing, looking over at Dom for a long moment. "I'm sorry. Not just for that," he told him when Dom tried to interrupt him. "For everything."

Dom was silent for a long moment, not speaking or working or even looking at Brian. Finally, he stood up and came over to Brian. "It wasn't your fault."

Brian shrugged. "It kinda seems like it."

Dom shook his head. "It's not. Without you, things woulda been a lot worse."

Brian stared at him for a long moment. Then he nodded and went back to working on the car. Dom watched him for a few seconds before he moved away and went back to what he was doing.

By the time the garage closed that night, they had finished the Acura and made some headway on the Yenko. Tej didn't say anything when they continued to work while everyone cleaned up. Before he left, he stopped beside the Yenko. "She's lookin' good again, Bri."

Brian nodded. "Yeah. She's startin' to come around, huh?"

Tej nodded. "You gonna race tonight?"

Brian stopped what he was doing and looked over. "You gotta spot for me?"

Tej shrugged. "Could. Or your boy can race."

Brian looked over at Dom, who shook his head. "Why don't we se what you've learned, Speed Racer?"

Tej tensed, waiting for the reaction he'd seen before, but Brian only grinned. "Yeah, whatever, Toretto." He threw the greasy rag that was in his back pocket at Dom, then stood up. "What time, Tej? And where?"

Tej eyed Dom for a moment, before he answered Brian. "Usual time. I'll send out where when we get a secure route."

Brian nodded. "Awesome." He looked over at Dom, and the two exchanged a look. Brian nodded again and Dom wiped his hands on the rag Brian had thrown at him, before tossing it back to Brian to do the same.

The two went back to Brian's boat. Brian got them both another corona and pulled some burgers out of the freezer. They took turns taking a shower in the small, cramped bathroom, and then started up the cheap grill that Brian had.

They ate their burgers as the sun set, lounging in the cheap chairs on the deck. "You never told me what you were doin' here," Brian said after a long silence.

Dom shrugged. "Vince and Leon are in LA, at the shop. Mia's almost done with school—she switched major's a bit ago, so it's taking her a bit longer. Letty knows she can come back, but she hasn't. Yet."

Dom stopped there, and Brian let him, didn't rush him. The thing about the two of them was that they had never had issues understanding each other. In fact, Brian thought as he finished his beer, they might have understood each other too much. Their easy friendship might have been the reason that it had only taken Brian three weeks to feel that he belonged, enough so that he would let his mark go, and become a fugitive as well.

Finally, Dom stood up, moving over so that he could lean against the railing. "We're missing a mechanic. You know how bad Vince is under a hood. Me and Leon could use another set of hands that know what they're doing."

Brian didn't say anything then, but when Dom turned and caught his eye, he didn't break their stare. After a moment, Dom relaxed. "So what kinda racing you doin' these days?"

Brian grinned. "Ain't no quarter mile, I'll tell you that. Track. They close down roads and do five miles. There's a preset number of people in the race, all depending on the course."

Dom looked a little impressed. Brian shook his head and the two settled into silence once again.

 

Brian showed up with five minutes til the race was called. He nudged the Skyline through all of the people, glancing over as Dom eyed the crowd from the passenger seat. When he pulled up to the start line, he could see Suki start to swear from the far end.

Brian grinned as he got out. Dom followed him out, but stayed out of the way as Brian talked to Tej. When Brian came back, Dom nodded to him, then slipped into the mass of watchers, looking over at Brian once more before Tej called ready.

Brian won. He hadn't thought otherwise, nor, it seemed, had any of the other people he was racing. Dom was waiting when he got out, grinning at him in a way that made Brian's chest hurt a little.

He grinned back, though, and collected his winnings. The cops stayed gone and Dom clapped him on the back as they went to duck back into the car.

They sat out on the deck for another beer when they got back, not talking much, but needing to unwind. When Dom got up to go to bed, he gripped Brian's shoulder tightly for a second, leaning down and dropping a kiss to the top of his head, like Brian had seen him do to everyone else, only hesitating a second.

Brian sat there for a while after, his empty dangling from his fingers.

 

Dom stuck around for a few days, helping Brian. Sometimes Brian introduced him, but he never explained why he was there. No one said anything about the large man that showed him.

Finally, though, one night when the two of them sat down in the plastic lawn chairs with coronas in hand, Dom sighed. "Should probably take off tomorrow. Left Leon and Vince all alone with the shop, and the idea of Vince trying to help out is scary enough."

Brian laughed a little. "Yeah."

They didn't say anything more about it, but when Dom got up in the morning, Brian had packed up what little he had. When they went into the garage, Tej sighed. "Someone finally called you home, huh?"

Brian looked a little surprised. "What?"

"Knew someone would eventually. You never belonged here," Tej told him. "Always looked west, waiting."

Brian shrugged. "Guess so."

Brian didn't waste too much time. He figured out the logistics of getting the Yenko out to Dom's shop and said his few goodbyes. And then he and Dom were gone, the silver Skyline peeling out after the red RX-7.

 

Brian's house and things were long gone. When they came into LA, in the middle of the afternoon, a couple of days later, Dom led them to his house. No one was there at the time, the house dark, lit only by the sunlight that filtered in through the windows.

They stopped in the kitchen, the bags they'd drug in with them left against the wall. Dom got them both a glass of water. Just as he took a drink, Brian made a comment that made him choke on it.

Dom set the glass down and swatted at Brian, who hastily set his glass down as well, and tired ducking away. Brian laughed as he fell back against the counter. Dom ended up nearly pinning him there, and after a second they both froze and fell silent.

They stared at each other for a long moment, before Dom pushed away. He led Brian up to the spare room and helped him unpack the Skyline. They didn't say anything about what had happened in the kitchen, and as soon as Brian's few possessions were in the room, the silver Skyline was following the red RX-7 down the street.

 

Leon and Vince were both at the garage when Dom and Brian pulled up. Vince hung back, but Leon went over to greet Brian as soon as he saw who it was.

"Sweet ride, man," Leon told him, admiring the car.

Brian returned the grin that Leon was giving him. "The gold you can find at a used car lot."

Leon laughed, and the two of them and Dom moved into the garage. Vince stepped up to Brian as he passed, and both Dom and Leon tensed up.

"Hear I got you to thank for being alive and out of jail," Vince nearly growled.

Brian shrugged. "If you want."

Vince stared at him for a long moment before he shook his head and backed away. Brian glanced over at Dom, who was relaxing slowly, and gave him a look that Leon couldn't decipher. He didn't miss the fact that Dom seemed to understand, though.

They worked on a car that had been in a nasty wreck for the rest of the afternoon. Vince didn't do much, as he understood what they were doing in theory, though he wasn't too good at doing it himself, but he stuck around. All four of them trailed back to Dom's house once they'd closed up for the night. Mia showed up not too long after they got back, and the moment she saw Brian, she slapped him. Before anyone could do or say anything, she was hugging him.

"You bastard," she told him, smiling softly as she did.

Brian shrugged. "My mom would probably contest that."

Mia laughed. "Yeah, whatever. Where have you been, Brian?"

When Brian only shrugged, Dom stepped up and slapped him on the shoulder. "Miami, for the most part. Stirring up trouble there, too."

"Yeah?" Leon asked. "And how was that?"

Brian shrugged again. "Hot. Muggy. Artificial."

There was a tense moment when he said that, but no one said anything about his word choice. Mia went to the fridge and started to pull out the makings for dinner, and Dom slid in behind her to hand out the first round of coronas. He passed the bottle opener around as well, and after a moment, Mia shooed them out of the kitchen.

Leon turned on one of the video games and Vince sat near him, telling him where to go and what to do. Brian sat down on the couch next to Dom, neither of them talking. He caught Vince glancing over at them every now and then, but none of them said anything.

Diner was slightly subdued, but it wasn't tense. Mia talked about one of her classes and they all listened, even as she talked about things that went over their heads. When it was over, they retreated to the living room, turning on some movie that had lots of things being blown up and horrendous dialogue to go with it.

Leon and Vince took off late and Brian rounded up their empties, rinsing them out before he dumped them into the recycle. Mia said goodnight then, and it was just Dom and Brian downstairs.

Once they had picked up a little, Brian flipped the kitchen lights off. He passed Dom and started up the stairs, and Dom flipped the rest of the lights off and followed him up. Brian paused before he went into the room he'd dumped his stuff in earlier. They stared at each other for a second before Dom reached up and pulled his head down, kissing the top of it quickly.

"It's good to have you home," Dom told him, gruffly.

 

Things settled quickly, with Brian, Dom and Leon working at the garage and Mia coming by when she wasn't at school or the store. Vince came by, too, when he wasn't working his own gig.

The first Sunday they were back, Mia took off for some kind of study group, leaving Dom and Brian alone at the house. The Yenko was at the garage, and they could have gone to work on it. Instead, though, they ended up under the hoods of the Skyline and the RX-7, despite the fact that they kept their cars in good shape.

They tinkered, messing around and working out any issues their cars might have had if they hadn't been in such good condition. It started to get hot, the midday sun beating down on them. Brian was the first to step back and peel his shirt off, wiping his face with it when he did.

He tossed his shirt off to the side, then looked up in time to catch Dom watching him. He raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything. Later, when Dom stripped out of his wife beater, Brian had to make himself look away before Dom looked over.

They worked like that for a while. They both commented here and there about the cars, but for the most part they were quiet, just listening to the old radio that they had on in the background. Eventually they stopped long enough to scrounge up food and a couple of beers, eating on the back steps and looking out towards the cars. Both of them had grease smears on their hands and faces, as well as the rest of them. When Brian leaned back after he had finished his sandwich, Dom rubbed at a smear on his side.

Both of them froze when they realized what he was doing, but Dom didn't pull his hand back. Brian bit his lip and the next thing he knew, they were kissing. It wasn't hard or fast, but more tentative. A light touch of his lips, followed by another. Dom ran his tongue along his lips, and Brian shifted.

Then they were really kissing. Dom's hand that had been on Brian's side slid down to his hip, his fingers tucking under the edge of Brian's jeans. Dom's other hand came up to cradle the side of his face. Brian still had one hand supporting him, but the other ended up on Dom's shoulder.

Neither were really sure how long they had been kissing when they finally pulled apart. They didn't leap back, or even slide away from each other. Instead Dom held Brian steady with the hand on his hip, as his other hand slid back into his hair.

They didn't say anything, just shifted until they were both leaning back on the steps, shoulders brushing.

 

Mia was out for the night. Dom was pretty sure she was lying about going over to a friend's to study, but he didn't call her on it. Vince and Leon both had plans, which left Brian and Dom alone.

Brian was in the kitchen, pulling stuff out of the fridge to start dinner when Dom came down the stairs. He paused in the kitchen doorway, watching for a moment, before he came up behind Brian, his hands settling on his hips. Brian leaned back against him, tilting his head to the side to give Dom more room when he started to kiss his neck.

"She's gonna be gone 'til tomorrow," Dom told him, his mouth just above Brian's skin. Brian shivered and made a sound in return. Dom grinned, his hands tightening as he shifted, his dick brushing against Brian ass. Brian braced himself on the counter, pushing back against Dom, and one of Dom's hands slid up under Brian's teeshirt, splaying across stomach.

Brian didn't protest when Dom turned him around. His hands came up to grip Dom's shoulders while Dom's stayed on his hips, aligning them so that their dicks lined up through rough denim.

One of Dom's hands skated up across his back under his teeshirt, pulling it up as it moved. They paused long enough for Brian to strip off his teeshirt, and then he was leaning back in to kiss him again. Dom laughed against his lips when Brian tugged at his shirt, trying to get him closer and pull the shirt off at the same time. Brian pushed him back enough to give him a dirty look, but it didn't mean much when he leaned back in to give him a slow kiss.

Eventually, both of their shirts were off and Brian's jeans were unbuttoned. Brian was working on Dom's jeans as Dom shifted them backwards and out of the kitchen until he could kick a chair out from the table and sit down, pulling Brian down into his lap. Brian let out a low groan as he settled there, one hand wrapping around the back of Dom's head, the other staying tight on his shoulder.

They were kissing hard, Brian nipping at Dom's lips and licking deep into his mouth. He bit down on Dom's bottom lip and then trailed kisses down to his neck. When he bit and sucked the place where Dom's neck met his shoulder, Dom let out a groan. "Jesus, Brian," he nearly growled out.

Brian pulled back long enough to grin at him before he leaned back in and bit at his shoulder again. He was rocking against Dom, letting out little sounds that could quite possibly have driven Dom crazy all on their own. Dom slid his hands under the top of Brian's jeans, gripping his ass and pulling him down as he ground up. Brian stiffed as he came, making a sound in the back of his throat that made Dom groan, shifting and pulling him down one more time before he came, too.

Brian smiled down at him, looking just fucked and a little dazed. His arms were linked loosely around Dom's neck. Dom smiled back, the hand on Brian's ass pulling him closer, so he could kiss him softly.

 

When Brian woke up, the sun was barely up above the house behind Dom's. Dom was on his stomach, his arm slung across Brian's middle. Brian stretched, one of his hands falling above hid head. His shifting caused Dom to stir, and tighten his grip around Brian.

Brian rolled onto his side, one hand running up Dom's back, along his spine, the other propping him up. Dom turned his head, shifting around until he was half on his side. Brian smiled at him, causing Dm to smile back with a half awake look.

Dom shifted into a more comfortable position and then tugged Brian down until he was curled up against him. He dropped a kiss to the top of Brian's head. "'s too early," he told Brian, his voice morning-gravely from sleep.

Brian grinned into Dom's shoulder, but stayed there and dozed as Dom fell back asleep.

 

Dom didn't race a whole lot anymore, but every now and then, he hit the streets at night. The first few times he raced after Brian came back to LA with him, Brian had stayed behind. He wasn't sure what, exactly, had circulated about him on the streets after he left, and he wasn't sure that he wanted to find out the hard way that everyone had a grudge.

Dom tried to coax him into coming with him, promising that no one would give a damn if he showed up. Brian had promised to show up eventually, but managed to put it off until Hector showed up at the garage a couple of months after he came back.

Brian wasn't to sure what happened, but somehow he had ended up agreeing to show up at the next race. He wasn't sure if Hector had set up the race two nights later, but he knew Dom had had something to do with it.

Dom was right in that no one made any comments to his face. But he felt the eyes on him and he heard the murmur that followed in his wake. When Edwin came up and greeted him, Brain felt himself relax some, despite it all.

"You ready to race, snowman?" Edwin asked.

Brain raised an eyebrow. Yeah, he'd come down in the Skyline, following Dom in the RX-7 just like Leon, Vince and Mia were doing in their cars, but he'd had no intention of racing.

When he failed to respond, Edwin started laughing. "You got no idea what I'm talking about, do you?"

Brian gave him a rueful grin. "No, not really. Though I can make an educated guess," he told him, cutting a glance towards Dom. Edwin shrugged, but didn't deny it.

In the end, he did race. Against Edwin and two guys he didn't know, one of whom he'd never heard of and the other who he might have seen once before, when he was undercover. Brian had learned a lot since he had raced his first race in LA, and spent a good amount of time in Miami beating out everyone. That said, it had been awhile since he had raced a quarter mile.

That didn't stop him from giving Dom a grin as he lined up, sure and knowing. He won, and not by just a little. He knew he surprised a lot of people, but Dom was giving him a knowing look and Leon was right there to congratulate him, with Mia not far behind. Even Vince smiled at him, something Brian wasn't expecting at all.

There wasn't a party after, or if it was, no one told Brian about it. Mia left the race and followed Vince back to his apartment, something Brian knew that Dom would have protested under normal circumstances. This wasn't normal circumstances, though, and they were barely inside the house before Dom was kissing him hard, his hands roaming up Brian's back under his teeshirt, then down below the top of his jeans to grip his ass.

Brian groaned, the hand he had wrapped around the back of Dom's neck tightening. Dom lifted him up enough so that Brian could hook a leg up around Dom's hip, their dicks meeting through the layers of clothing.

Dom bit Brian's lip, pushing him up against a wall in the kitchen and grinding against him. Dom pulled back after a moment, both of them breathing hard. "Gonna have to make you race more often, Bri," he told him before he leaned back in to kiss him again.

 

They had a barbeque a few Saturday's later. Leon and Vince showed up with things for the table while Dom was manning the grill and Brian and Mia were bringing things out of the house, like it had been before.

Brian tensed up a little when Edwin showed up, pulling back and straightening up from where he had been leaning back against the wall near Dom. Edwin only smiled at them all, holding up the beer he had brought. Not far behind him was Hector with a couple of his guys, bringing more food and beer.

Brain stayed tense, not sure, exactly, how he was supposed to act. Normally, he didn't really have to worry about how he acted there at the house. While the others never said anything about the two of them, they all knew, and more importantly, seemed to accept them. With other people around, he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do—he wasn't even sure how much any of the other's knew.

Brian stuck to the side as everyone else milled around, setting the food up and grabbing beers. Mia came over and nudged him towards the grill where Dom was still holding court. "You should go over," she told him, with a look.

Brian shrugged. Vince glanced over at them, and Brian wondered whether he should feel grateful or not when he looked away, obviously not worried about Mia leaning into talk quietly with him. When he glanced over and caught Dom watching him, he figured Vince had reason to not be worried.

Dom raised an eyebrow, cocking his head to the side in a blatant invitation to come over. Brian glanced over at Mia before he started towards the grill, snagging two coronas on the way.

Dom took the beer from him, but kept watching him. "You okay, Bri?" he asked, quiet enough that no one else could hear him over the dull roar that the rest of the crowd was putting out.

Brian shrugged. "Sure," he told Dom, then took a long pull of his beer.

Dom rolled his eyes. "Dude, don't even try to pull that on me." He reached over and snagged Brian's teeshirt, pulling him towards him. He didn't pull him too close, but close enough that Brian had no doubt that everyone there got the idea. "If they have a problem, they can go fuck themselves," Dom told him, loosening his grip on the teeshirt so he could slide it onto Brian's hip.

Brian sighed, tensing for a moment before he relaxed into the touch. "Yeah," he said finally, shifting a little. "Ex cop, remember?"

Dom gave him a long look before he had to turn some of his attention back to the grill. "No cops here," he told him.

Brian shrugged, though he didn't step away from Dom. "Doesn't matter. Still gonna have a hard time breaking the habit of being around them, or looking out for them."

Dom didn't say anything to that, but he stayed close to Brian. No one said anything, and no one left. Brian could feel looks directed towards them, but whenever he looked up, everyone was busy with and interested in something else.

By the time the sun went down, everyone was happily buzzed. Dom sat on the steps, Brian one step below, leaning against him. Hector was sprawled at the foot of the steps and Leon was beside him, the two of them deep in debate about something.

When Edwin, and the people who had trickled in after him over the course of the afternoon, got up to leave, Edwin came over to say goodbye. He grinned at Brian, leaning against the railing. "You gotta come race with us more, snowman. Got a lot of boys who want a chance to beat you, no matter how good your record from Miami is. Prolly cause of it," he drawled.

Brian shrugged, but he was grinning. "Yeah, well. What can you do?"

"Race!" one of Edwin's guys called out.

Brian laughed as he watched them all make their ways back to their cars. Dom leaned down and kissed him on the top of his head. "See?" he asked as he pulled back.

Brian could only nod.


End file.
